Top trade officials from both sides will meet on Saturday in the first high-level meeting since US President Donald Trump hit China with tariffs in January.

Beijing retaliated immediately and a tense stand-off ensued as the two countries heaped levies on each other. New US tariffs on Chinese imports stand at 145 percent, and some US exports to China face duties of 125 percent. There have been weeks of stern, and sometimes fiery, rhetoric where each side sought to paint the other as the more desperate party. And yet this weekend they will face each other over the negotiating table.

Despite multiple rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs, both sides have been sending signals that they want to break the deadlock. Except it wasn't clear who would blink first. "Neither side wants to appear to be backing down," said Stephen Olson, senior visiting fellow at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and a former US trade negotiator. "The talks are taking place now because both countries have judged that they can move forward without appearing to have caved in to the other side."

Still, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian emphasised on Wednesday that "the talks are being held at the request of the US". And the commerce ministry framed it as a favour to Washington, saying it was answering the "calls of US businesses and consumers".

The Trump administration, however, claims it's Chinese officials who "want to do business very much" because "their economy is collapsing". "They said we initiated? Well, I think they ought to go back and study their files," Trump said at the White House on Wednesday. (BBC)